[SCRIPT] Automating the installation of eGPU on OS X (inc display output)

[Dschijn]

The 5k resolution is achieved by a trick by apple (not sure if it's 2xDP together or a chip overclock). Maybe that can't be done when an eGPU is installed.

[euqlaog]

1 hour ago, aiv said:

The max availble resolution in SwitchResX is 4k, after uninstalling the script 5k again. I'll check system_profiler this evening. And yes, please please provide this option.

A quick fix,

 

1) sudo ./automate-eGPU.sh -uninstall and restart the Mac

2) Change the line 62 of the script to: config_board_ids=()

3) sudo ./automate-eGPU.sh and restart the Mac

[aiv]

Its working, I can render by CUDA engine, imac still has 5k resolution. Thank you so much!

[chrise]

Cool,

that was quick

 

Do youstill have to sleep and wake ?

[aiv]

not at all! Works as it should be

[aiv]

The only remaining issue is the missing brightness slider in monitor settings. F1, F2 do not work either. I do not remember exactly, but after uninstalling the script the slider reappeared sporadically and I was able to adjust the monitor brightness but sometimes after the restart it disappeared again..

[chrise]

hmm... for me F1, F2 are working.

But did this trick disable the egpu monitor output?

[euqlaog]

11 minutes ago, chrise said:

hmm... for me F1, F2 are working.

But did this trick disable the egpu monitor output?

Yep, it's either or. I’ll add this option to the next version. For OpenCL/CUDA computing eGPU monitor output is not necessary.

[chrise]

Cool thanks for your help again.

In osx i dont need the external monitor.

 

[aiv]

I've found a scenario: monitor brightness can't be adjusted when in "Gaphics Drivers" icon the option "NVIDIA Web Driver" is set. "OS X Default Graphics Driver" allows the brightness adjustment, but then CUDA is not available..

 

By the way, will I get a double bandwidth when I plug the second thunderbolt port from iMac to Akitio?

Edited February 13, 2016 by aiv

[mmomega]

On February 13, 2016 at 1:45 PM, goalque said:

Yep, it's either or. I’ll add this option to the next version. For OpenCL/CUDA computing eGPU monitor output is not necessary.

Long-time reader, recently joined the forums.

I would just like to say, Thank You for all the work you've been doing to get this working and helping all of us other guys with  our setups. It takes a special person to not only help someone with a setup exactly the same as their own but to go above and beyond to try and get everyone working. 

It's really cool what you're doing and have put into this project. I don't know if I could buy you a beer but I'd for sure contribute to any donations for the hard work you've done to make it almost a simple plug n play for the rest of us.

 

I should have my eGPU setup by Tuesday, 5k iMac and 980Ti. I'll be reporting back soon. Thanks again guys.

Edited February 14, 2016 by mmomega
additional info

[Manjerone]

Hello Guys, im from Brazil, and i need help to install my EVGA gtx 690.

(sry for my english) review my acts:

 

 

Im using a Mac Pro (late 2013) with a Sonnet Echo Express and External PSU in the gtx 690, im Sleeving psu OK.

 

Im using 2x 8Pins on my Gtx 690.

 

and my OS X is El Capitan 10.11.3, its my 3rd wipe, and i not had success.

I use the automate-egpu and receive that advice:

 

Please install eGPUs one by one.

 

 

in my 2 wipe, in preferences of system >Graphics, appear two nvidia, without information,  ram, etc. but, no success.

 

im downloading yosemite/mavericks to test again...

 

 

[mmomega]

I received everything today, hardware wise everything is fine. The problem comes in I think because I'm running 10.11.4beta3 and the script can not find a driver for this version of OS X so everything seems to just halt at that point. 

I found the drivers for 10.11.4 installed those along with the CUDA drivers and tried every boot up process I could find and the Mac just won't recognize the card.

Running the script it sees the card and says GTX 980 Ti installed but just can not find the drivers for the card and this version of OS X so I'm going to try going back to 10.11.3 and running the script again.

346.03.06b01 are the drivers I found from MacVideoCards that are supposed to be for 10.11.4b

[euqlaog]

@Manjerone

Unfortunately the script doesn’t support dual-GPU cards at the moment.

@mmomega

Please wait for the official driver. If you have to use OS X beta, it’s possible by -url option.

[Manjerone]

Thx to answer goalque....

What is my options, to make this eGPU works?

Manually (Editing kexts/install drivers)?

 

[euqlaog]

2 minutes ago, Manjerone said:

Thx to answer goalque....

What is my options, to make this eGPU works?

Manually (Editing kexts/install drivers)?

 

Remove the validation:

if [[ $(echo ${#egpu_device_id}) > 4 ]]
then
echo "Please install eGPUs one by one."
exit
fi

 

[mmomega]

reinstalled 10.11.3 and the card was picked up right away, script ran beautifully and external monitor came on immediately after restart. 

Just now the built-in 5k display is only showing on maybe 1/3rd of the screen , showing as 2560*2800 18" screen.

[euqlaog]

7 minutes ago, mmomega said:

reinstalled 10.11.3 and the card was picked up right away, script ran beautifully and external monitor came on immediately after restart. 

Just now the built-in 5k display is only showing on maybe 1/3rd of the screen , showing as 2560*2800 18" screen.

Sleep and wake the Mac, or do the following (if you don’t need the eGPU screen output):
https://www.techinferno.com/index.php?/forums/topic/7989-script-automating-the-installation-of-egpu-on-os-x-inc-display-output/&do=findComment&comment=138038

[mmomega]

got the eGPU to run in Windows.

For me the bootup was

: have the egpu powered down

: booted up the iMac holding down Alt and continue holding it

: Once I could choose the partition I continued holding Alt while I turned on the eGPU.

: count to 5

: Still holding Alt I chose Windows and continue holding until the Windows loading swirly thing showed up

: at that time the external monitor that was connected to the eGPU came alive and everything was detected fine.

 

This worked 100% for me

Also, in Windows I had gone into device manager and clicked disable on the M395X prior to restarting.

With the 395X disabled, the 980TI 'seems' to be powering the 5k screen but the resolution is set only to 4k and I couldn't change this.

It got late so this is as far as I got tonight, I can do some more testing in Windows tomorrow.

 

Downloading some benchmark software to test it out.

 

Edited February 16, 2016 by mmomega

[Dschijn]

@mmomega: 4k seems to be the highest possible resolution in Windows: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6604929?tstart=0

Would be really interessting if you have eGPU performance on the internal monitor!!!

[Manjerone]

13 hours ago, goalque said:

Remove the validation:

if [[ $(echo ${#egpu_device_id}) > 4 ]]
then
echo "Please install eGPUs one by one."
exit
fi

 

Thx goalque, i had sucess... but, in the preferences my gpu was divided.

How I can correct this, and use to advantage it better?

[mmomega]

Quote

6 hours ago, Dschijn said:

@mmomega: 4k seems to be the highest possible resolution in Windows: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6604929?tstart=0

Would be really interessting if you have eGPU performance on the internal monitor!!!

I have folding@home running at the moment so I don't want to restart the computer yet but I am fairly confident that when I had the 395X enabled in Windows the internal monitor ran at 5120x2880 in Windows10.

I'll check sometime today to verify.

 

[Arise]

Should I try it for my hackintosh?

[aiv]

Another question concerning PSU: I notice, that Akitio's blue LED goes down when I send my iMac into sleep mode. How can I tell the PSU to go down as well and to wake up when iMac wakes up?

[thepbjain]

Hey guys,

Sorry if this question was asked before, but does this script work without an external display on OS X?

 

Thanks in advance!